Empathy
by Muusad
Summary: What if Naruto displayed his usual impatience and unwillingness to follow directions during his encounter with Itachi in the hotel?
1. Divergence

"Don't do it."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as Sasuke spoke from his position on the floor before narrowing as he watch him struggle to his feet. "This guy… _is mine!"_

He eyed how it was seemingly taking all of his strength just to remain standing and, as he remembered the feeling of unease that had come over him just from _looking_ at Itachi, he began to inch his way around the two seemingly distracted Akatsuki members.

"Naruto! I told you, don't!"

He froze, his mind torn with indecision as to whether to obey Sasuke's demands or to give in to his own desire to help his friend. His introspection didn't last long, however, as the shouted challenge dragged him outside of his head in time for him to see that, instead of answering verbally, Itachi elected to slam his fist into Sasuke's gut twice in quick succession. Blood flew from his mouth as he collapsed to the floor once more. Some distant part of his mind noted that he was grinding his teeth together hard enough to make his jaw ache. It was as he saw Itachi reach down grasp a helpless Sasuke by the neck that he felt something within himself… snap.

Channeling what chakra he had left to his feet and legs, Naruto shot around Kisame by jumping onto the wall that Sasuke had damaged during his foolhardy charge. He could hear a gruff shout and the sound of grappling from behind him but his mind was so focused on his goal that there was no room left for comprehension of what was said.

_Shit, not gonna make it!_

And then it came to him.

Preparing himself for the pain that was sure to follow, he channeled all of his remaining chakra to his legs and compressed it there. As he took one last step to get himself into position, he _shoved_ all of that gathered chakra into and then out of the soles of his feet and was sent flying off of the wall, leaving behind a sizable crater and the tattered remnants of his sandals, turning in midair so that his right shoulder slammed into Sasuke's left side with enough force to break the hold Itachi had on him. As Sasuke was thrown free, Naruto passed in front of Itachi right as his eyes opened, Sharingan spinning wildly, but in a shape so different than what was previously there. He noted a flicker of emotion from Itachi - shock, maybe - before he was transported into a world of black and white as the genjutsu took hold.

"You're weak…"

Naruto cringed as his weight settled on badly burned feet before falling to his knees. His pain was forgotten, however, as he looked around to take stock of strange black and white world he found himself in.

…_shit_

Suddenly, formed from the blackness, he saw Itachi, sword in hand, arm drawn back as if to slash at the kneeling forms of two people that looked vaguely familiar.

"From now on… for 24 hours… you will relive that day…"

Naruto recoiled in shock as blood geysered from the two bodies, now headless, and felt warmth splatter all across his front.

"What the fuck?!"

"They were a measuring stick to test myself."

"You _bastard! _They were just sitting there!"

"If you want to kill me… live miserably! Hate me! Survive through the ugliness. Run… run… learn to survive."

Naruto's next outburst died in his throat as he was treated to a slide show horror of murder after murder of men, women, and children… and then he was back where he started. As he once more fell to his knees, he attempted to brace himself for what was to follow.

**23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds remain.**

* * *

Sasuke grunted as a screaming Naruto landed atop him, jolting his injured wrist and setting off a fresh round of pain. As he turned his head to glare at Itachi, his planned diatribe died on his tongue as their gazes met and Itachi's normal appearance of bored neutrality was replaced with something.

Regret?

Sasuke closed his eyes and shook his head and when he looked again the normal expression, or lack thereof, was firmly back in place. He was wondering if he was finally starting to go mad when Kisame was sent crashing into Itachi with sufficient force to send them both through the wall.

He whipped his head to the right and he felt his a rush of tingling along the back of his neck and tasted bile upon seeing Jiraiya toss Kisame's left arm to the ground before casually incinerating it with a katon jutsu. He blinked, one, quickly, and Jiraiya was at his side peering through the recently formed hole.

"Well, they're gone." He sighed as he glanced down at the two of them on the floor. "Hey, brat, come on. We need to get the two of you back to Konoha."

"What."

"Eh?"

"What the.. I mean, how did you…" He blinked several times, and his mind cleared. "Why… why would he jump in front me like that?"

Jiraiya gave him a look that clearly conveyed that he thought Sasuke's question was idiocy itself. "Aren't you teammates?" Then quieter, "damn brat never listens."

Teammates…was that what they were? It seemed like such a simple word.

Teammate.

A fellow member of a group of people associated together in a joint action.

While technically correct, it seemed to be missing… something. His mind flashed back to how he and Naruto had shared a glance and communicated an entire plan of attack in that one frozen moment… to Haku and his senbon and how he had found himself between them and Naruto… to the Forest of Death, where Naruto blocked the charge of Orochimaru's snake and then, later, when Sakura, who he had up to that point regarded as annoyance made flesh, protected _both_ of them from an entire team long enough for help to arrive… to Naruto going all-out when Sakura was threatened by Gaara and how he had in turn protected Naruto when he was sent flying by his kunai's explosion.

"_Sasuke…"_

"_Finally decided to go back to your normal self? Even after all that, you only managed one blow… shape up, would you? I can't save you again like I did in Wave, you idiot."_

"…_Shaddap."_

"_Hey, Naruto. Sakura… you have to save her, no matter what it takes. I know you can. Once you've got her, run as far and as fast as you can."_

"_Sasuke…"_

"_I'll be able to hold him off, even if it's just for a little while."_

"_You-"_

"Never again. _I already lost everything once and I refuse to watch those dear to me die before my eyes again."_

_At his words, he saw Naruto's face change from shock to realization and then to a grim, ferocious determination that he had never seen before and the display that followed shocked him into silence. It had seemed that, for a while, he had had the upper hand but then there was a giant eruption of sand that formed before them into a raccoon tall enough to use the Hokage Monument as a convenient armrest, and covered with sinister looking swirling black marks. He was forced to sit and watch in horror as sand crawled up Naruto's legs to cover his body while he looked around in shock and fear. Then, as Sasuke called out his name and his eyes landed, once again, on Sakura, the look of determination from before had returned and was, somehow, even more focused… and then the sand covered him completely. _

_Sasuke refused to avert his eyes because, although Naruto was about to die, he would at least show him the respect of observing his final moments. As he braced himself for the inevitable bloodcurdling scream and subsequent shower of blood, what he was instead treated to was the sudden appearance of a gigantic toad, complete with a vest, tanto, and pipe… and Sasuke felt his grim acceptance of yet another death give way to to shock and, yes, _hope_."_

Sasuke moved Naruto so that he was propped up against the wall and then shifted himself to mirror the position.

_That's right… he saved us then and again, just now, he protected me… I've never seen him move that fast and the look in his eyes… it was the same as back then._

He set about binding his wrist to give himself more time to think, the only sound the hiss of indrawn breath and the soft sounds from strips of cloth rubbing together.

_Teammates, that's what Jiraiya called us… but was that all they were? People simply thrown together by chance don't just put their lives on the line like that…_

He looked up to meet the man's eyes. "No."

Jiraiya's brow furrowed and his eyes flashed with anger. "You _litt_-"

"We're _family_."

* * *

Haruno Sakura was happy, and just a little bit smug.

She had been able to one-up her friend (rival) Yamanaka Ino in a friendly (vicious) shuriken accuracy bout. As a result, Ino treated her, as per the standing agreement about such things, to lunch at that fancy Dango stand where the Jounin liked to eat. While she was triumphantly munching on dango (the spoils of war were exempt from dietary guidelines, after all), Ino waved over Tenten and Hyuuga Hinata, who had been passing by. After some conversation and dango that was obtained by further coercion of Ino, they decided to claim one of the unused training grounds for a few hours. After all, kunoichi need to stick together.

Tenten was, unsurprisingly, the best of the group with anything involving weapons, but where she truly shone was in her accuracy when it came to throwing them… even those, such as swords and sickles, that were never meant to be used in such a manner. Hinata was far and away the best at taijutsu and, through the use of her Byakugan, could avoid traps and ambushes with ease. Ino, by the virtue of her chakra sensing abilities, excelled at locating traps that had been prepared with chakra as well as judging the strength and scope of a technique. Also, when they paired off later in the session, she was able to use her clan techniques to great effect. While Sakura didn't have the same array of abilities of the others, she made up for it with less conventional - for shinobi, anyway - traps involving wire, shuriken, feathers, and so on; being on the same team as a prankster certainly had its perks. She was also able to snag everyone but Hinata in a simple genjutsu that she had conned Kakashi into showing her and, had Hinata been unable to see the abnormal chakra flow indicative of a genjutsu due to her Byakugan, she would also have been treated to the lovely sensation of an amorous thorny rose bush that wanted nothing more in the world than to to hold her tightly.

Afterward, the suggestion was made that, due to their dirty, disheveled state, a visit to the hot springs was called for. In addition to getting clean, it would also help ease the various ached and pains associated with several hours of training. The social aspect was not to be overlooked, either. At some point the conversation turned toward the idiosyncrasies of their individual sensei as well as the insanity of their teammates. Hinata's contributions tended to be limited to the occasional shy smile and she seemed content to just sit back and let the flow of words wash over her. After much debate on the matter of who had the craziest teammate, they eventually agreed on a tie between Naruto's obsession with ramen and the color orange and Lee's poor choice of clothing and his prattling about the power of youth. Later, with promises to meet up again in the near future, they all went their separate ways.

_Absolutely nothing can ruin this perfect day._

Sakura was humming to herself as she made her way from the hot springs toward the front gate where she planned to go visit with the chuunin gate guards. While their duty was an important one it was also fairly boring since they could often go hours without seeing anyone. As such, they didn't mind it when people dropped by to chat as it tended to break up their day. Unrelated, and definitely not her actual reason for going, was the fact that they were also a prime source of gossip.

Had she decided to do something, anything, other than that, her "perfect day" would have lasted longer. As it was, when she turned onto the main street that lead toward the main gate, what she saw put to death all hopes of a peaceful afternoon of socializing.

There was Sasuke, walking slightly off to the side of the little group of people, as he was wont to do. While you wouldn't know it to look at it his face, to Sakura, who had made an art out of studying him, it was clear that he was in pain. Next to him was Maito Gai, the bushy-browed green monstrosity of a man that had been the cause of much in the way of giggles and sighs of exasperation earlier, though he was wearing a much more serious expression than the last time she had seen him. He also looked a bit… sheepish for some reason.

Odd, and slightly disturbing.

Heading up this procession was a man Sakura had never seen before with long, wild-looking white hair that was taller even than Gai who, on his own, made most Konoha shinobi seem petite by comparison. Also, judging by the looks of things, his nose had recently been broken. What really caught her attention, however, was the sight of Naruto, unmoving, lying in the strange man's arms.

Which was how Sakura found herself standing next to a bed looking down at the unconscious blond while her other teammate was being given his first round of chakra-assisted healing for his wrist, ribs, and shoulder. With a sigh, she trudged over to a chair on the opposite side of the room that gave her a clear view of both beds and, after throwing herself into it, wondered just how the rest of her team had ended up needing to be hospitalized.

Again.

_I really must learn to not tempt fate._

* * *

Sakura sat very still as the medic, whose name had slipped her mind, explained for the third time in an increasingly annoyed tone that, while Sasuke and Naruto were both injured to varying degrees, they will recover just fine given some time and rest, and could I please go see my other patients? As she finally nodded acceptance and the harried medic fled the room to spread warnings of the demon currently taking up residence in their peaceful hospital, her mind turned toward her teammates. Sasuke, who had been temporarily put under so that his ribs, shoulder, and the bones in his wrist could be realigned via careful applications of chakra, was carefully pulling himself into a sitting position. Naruto, however, though his feet had been partially healed (there was only so much you could do with chakra-based healing techniques in one sitting as too much at once could sometimes cause adverse reactions and that was generally reserved for life-threatening cases), likely would not rejoin the world for some time.

_Those idiots… though at least they're alright. If Jiraiya-san hadn't been there…_

She shook her head briefly to clear away such morbid thoughts. After all, he _had_ been there and there was no sense in thinking about what could have happened. Though she was still very much in the dark on what _did_ happen.

They stayed that way for quite some time. Sakura was fiddling with the hem of her shirt and trying to think of a way to start a conversation. Sasuke had apparently decided to lie back down and was currently staring at the ceiling, his gaze blank as he analyzed all that had happened during the brief encounter with Itachi in the hopes of finding a weakness. Naruto was, well, not mentally present… though some would argue that this was hardly a change.

"…Sasuke-kun." Her voice wavered and cracked and, in that moment, she hated herself a little.

He did not give any sign that he heard her.

She sighed, leaned forward, and, with more confidence, spoke again. "Sasuke-kun, Jiraiya-san and Gai-sensei wouldn't say… what happened to the two of you?"

He mumbled something she couldn't quite make out.

"Sorry?"

"We were attacked. Naruto… pushed me out of the way of an attack but got hit by it himself."

"Ah… wait, why were you being attacked? No, wait, _who_ was responsible for this?"

"My bastard of a brother." The last word was snarled more than spoken.

She sat back at that and, at a loss, simply said, "I see."

His head snapped to the side so that their eyes met. "_Do you_?"

She opened her moth to reply with what would no doubt be forever remembered as one of the great witty retorts of their time. Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on your point of view-, a nurse chose that moment to breeze into the room to perform checks on both Sasuke and Naruto. As she continued to putter about with seemingly no regard for how long she was taking, Sakura's inner self began to contemplate the merits and possible consequences of taking this poof of a woman, cracking her over the head with the chair she was currently sitting on, and stuffing her into the closet located conveniently near the door.

On the one hand, she would be free of this interruption and would hopefully be able to speak properly with Sasuke. This course of action would grant her immediate knowledge of what had happened to put her two teammates into this condition and, through some chain of events she hadn't quite worked out, Sasuke would also realize that she was the only one for him and would promptly confess his love for her. Nobody could ever accuse Sakura of being lacking in imagination.

On the other hand, a shinobi attacking a civilian, no matter how justified the shinobi in question felt they were, the consequences would be, in a word, _unpleasant_. In a best case scenario, they would be merely stripped of their rank and placed under guard pending an investigation. If found to be in the right, the shinobi's rank would be reinstated and they would be allowed to go about their life as if nothing had happened. However, should things not go so favorably, the shinobi would instead be given the option of taking on a mission that had a very low rate of survival (should they survive, more would be assigned until the Hokage felt that the shinobi's honor had been restored), or they could surrender themselves to Torture and Interrogation until such a time as the head of that department felt that they had sufficiently learned their lesson. As a result, such things simply did not happen, and the civilian population of Konoha were able to live their lives more-or-less without incident.

All of this was taught to all students of the Academy and, as such, Sakura was intimately familiar with the details. With a sigh, she decided that the nurse would be allowed to proceed about her job unmolested. On her part, the nurse would never know that the only thing that saved her from a quite thorough beating was a law put down decades before. While Sakura was wondering just how many civilians went about their lives relatively peacefully due to the existence of these laws she managed to miss the fact that the nurse had finished her work and, after sparing a glance at the strange girl with the glazed expression, went about finishing her rounds.

* * *

This was the scene that greeted Naruto when he finally clawed his way back to consciousness and away from visions of mass murder.

He was in a bed that, as far as strange beds go, was comfortable enough and, judging by how it felt as he lay on it, was likely a twin. While the sheets were slightly scratchy and, as he fidgeted around, he noticed a distressing lack of pants as well as a twinge of pain from his feet, he could at least say that the thin blanket provided enough warmth and modesty; the pillow itself left much to be desired, however. As he took in a deep breath he wrinkled his nose when he registered the sour smell of disinfectant with an undercurrent of what the Sandaime smelled like near the end of the day.

It was at this point that Naruto decided to open his eyes and look around the room of the hospital, for it could be nowhere else. They were only open briefly before being slammed shut as the room was almost entirely a blinding white. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the curtains, and even the blankets. Hell, the only things that broke the theme were the bed frames, the door, and the bedside tables. Oh, and the people in the room. Mustn't forget them. Who were they, anyway? Once again, with considerably more caution due to his desire to avoid further trauma, he cracked opened his eyes. Once they adjusted properly, he took a look around, thinking to himself that whoever was responsible for putting someone with a fetish for blinding white in charge of decorating a hospital should be exiled.

There was Sasuke, on the bed next to his. He was currently glaring at the ceiling as if it owed him money and a slight frown marred his forehead. His injured wrist was sporting a compression bandage which was, surprise, white. Naruto was relieved to see that he was, for the most part, alright. He also noted with a bit of annoyance that Sasuke had been placed near the window while he got the wall nearest the door. Oh well, at least he could still see the tops of trees and buildings from this angle.

Over on the opposite wall from where Naruto and Sasuke's beds were located, Sakura had planted herself on a chair. However, as he looked closer, there seemed to be something… off about the way she was acting. Gaze unfocused, head tilted slightly, as if she was looking through the building itself at something far in the distance. In addition to this, she was tapping her thumb and fingers together in sequence, like someone might do if they were counting something.

"…she's been doing that for a while, now."

Naruto whipped his head back to the side and bit back a groan as the room seemed to swirl around him a bit.

_Note to self… don't do that._

"Sasuke?"

A twitch of a grin was his answer, although his eyes still remained fixed on the ceiling. "Welcome back, idiot."

"You-"

"Honestly, what were you thinking? Jumping in front of someone like that. Probably the most idiotic thing I've seen you do, and that's really saying something."

_Thank you._

"You're a real bastard, you know that?"

_You're welcome._

They stayed that way for a while, neither seeming to be able to put their thoughts into words. The only sound came from the rhythmic tapping of Sakura's fingers as she continued with whatever it was she was doing.

Sasuke turned his head now to over at Naruto. "So, what was it he showed you?"

"It-"

"Eighty percent."

"Eh?"

"Sakura-chan?"

"Oh, that's… never mind. Unimportant. Hey, you're awake!" She got up and in one fluid movement had crossed the room and was leaning menacingly over Naruto's bed. "You idiot, why are you always doing things like this!?"

Naruto braced himself for the inevitable blow to his head (and his pride) when he suddenly found himself wrapped up in a tight hug. He could feel her hair tickling his left ear.

"You need to be more careful." And then, whispered so that only he could hear it. "Thank you."

* * *

The staff of the hospital were currently in a bit of a bind. While visiting hours were currently over, they were unable to decide who among them would be forced to deliver this news to the pink-haired kunoichi in room 317. Normally, something such as this was rather simple as duties went and tended to be both quick and painless. However, the medic that had been assigned that room had successfully spread warnings throughout the building to proceed into the room with only the utmost caution.

One option that was put forward was to fetch from her home the nurse who had managed to escape unscathed but, as she was now at home with her children and would definitely _not_ be amused by such a request, that was quickly discarded. Eventually, they resorted to drawing straws.

This was how one Fujioka Yuuto found himself standing outside of 317, working up the courage to knock.

* * *

"So, so, now that I was in and I had the stuff, I took all of the masks, piled them up on a table, and-"

He stopped as his attention was drawn to the soft knock on their door followed by it opening to reveal a man who looked like he would love nothing more in the world than to be elsewhere at that moment.

A man who froze mid-step as three sets of eyes turned to him.

_Oh, hell. The demon, the Uchiha, and that Uzumaki brat._

Realizing that he had been standing there, silent, for slightly too long, he cleared his throat.

"I am truly sorry to have interrupted you but, unfortunately, visiting hours ended some time ago so…" As he trailed off, he gestured vaguely at the door behind him in hopes that, if he did not actually _ask_ her to leave, then, perhaps, he could escape intact.

Sakura simply looked at him without saying anything and he could feel the sweat running down his back as he thought back to all of the terrible things his colleagues had said about her. After what seemed like hours but was, in fact, merely seconds, she blinked, got up from where she had been sitting at the foot of Naruto's bed, and after saying her goodbyes, was past him and gone down the hallway before he could react.

Eventually his mind caught up to the present and he remembered what else he had come to say.

"Ah, Uchiha-san, Uzumaki…-san. You will both receive additional treatment tomorrow and then will be free to go. Usually, in cases such as yours, (here he gestured at Naruto) you would remain here for several more days so that we could further assess your mental state. Standard policy after a debilitating genjutsu."

"Why aren't you?"

"I have heard it told that Jiraiya-san can be very persuasive… it may also have something to do with the fact that the Head simply wanted him to leave her alone."

Naruto took this as a cue to jump in. "Hey, are you saying my mind is broken or whatever? I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Some stupid genjutsu can't get me down!"

"Ah, I didn't mean to suggest… I mean, surely you are…"

"Don't bother; he's always like this."

"Dammit, Sasuke!"

Yuuto decided it would be best to make himself scarce so he promptly did so. He hummed to himself as he made his way down the hallway while pondering the dangers of exaggeration and the eccentricities of shinobi. As he rounded the corner, he was greeted by the sight of the men he had once respected.

"Idiots. All of you."

That done, he set himself to going about the remainder of his day.

* * *

Once Naruto and Sasuke were left alone in their room, Sasuke decided that the time had come for some answers.

"Naruto, what did he do to you?"

There was no initial reaction; he just sat there, staring at something through the window. Just as Sasuke began to believe that he had not been heard or was, perhaps, being ignored, Naruto's spoke up.

"Why does it matter?"

There was a swishing sound and then a solid thud as one of the not-so-soft pillows so prevalent in hospitals impacted into Naruto's face.

The melancholy expression was gone and, after some spluttering, Naruto managed to find his voice. "What the hell was that?!"

"Stop moping and just tell me."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Really? This, from you?"

"Don't change the subject. What happened?"

Sensing that further argument would be pointless, he decided to humor Sasuke. So, after tossing back the pillow and arranging himself so his back was against the wall and they were facing each other, he hesitated. "Just… don't tell Sakura."

"Why?"

"I… just don't, alright?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Alright then…"

He told him about the strange words that had been spoken, the way in which they had been said, and commented that they made very little sense.

He described in great detail all of the people he had seen and of the varied ways they had each been killed.

He wondered at the fact that, during all of this, Itachi had seemingly shown no emotion or awareness of what he was doing. No, that wasn't right. It was more like he simply did not care.

Lastly, he spoke of how all of this had been repeated so many times that he doubted he would ever forget even one moment for the rest of his life.

"Even now, when I close my eyes," He blinked once, slowly, deliberately, "I see flashes of what happened. I was talking with one of the doctors or medics or whatever earlier and she said it was normal, but… I really wish it would go away."

Naruto paused to think for a bit, not noticing that Sasuke was sitting as though his spine had been replaced by rod iron. "Genjutsu is stuff people make up and show you, right? What kind of person could come up with something like thi-"

"No."

"Aw man, that's what Kakashi-sensei said. He probably just said that to make me go away." He made wringing motions with his hands. "Once he's better, I'm gonna-"

"No, not that." He waved a hand around. "You got it right, though, as expected, it's the simplest explanation possible."

Naruto scowled, but before he could speak, Sasuke continued.

"What I meant was… he didn't 'come up' with anything." After taking a breath to steady himself, Sasuke launched into an explanation of how, after returning late one night from training, he had found the streets littered with the bodies of his clan; how, in a panic, he had run to his house to find Itachi standing over the bodies of his parents.

"And then… he did the same thing to me. Made me watch as, over and over, he killed everyone I had loved and almost everyone I had ever known." Sasuke looked around at the room they were in. "It seems he was planning on making me see it all again."

_Why didn't he just kill me if all he was going to do is mock my weakness and try and break my mind?_

As he could think of nothing to say, Naruto decided the best course of action was to fiddle with the hem of his blanket.

There was silence for quite some time after that.

"Hey, Naruto?"

He jerked awake. "Mm?"

"How were you able to beat Gaara?"

Naruto blinked a bit at the unexpected question and to clear his vision. "If I didn't beat him he would've killed Sakura-chan and probably you too." He said this slowly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's… it?"

"Do you remember, back in Wave, that kid who was with Zabuza?"

He nodded.

_What the hell does that have to do with anything?_

"He said something to me once, before I knew who he was. He said 'When a person has something important they want to protect that's when they can become truly _strong_.' It's true." He grinned. "It's a good thing you guys were there or I'd probably be dead!"

"That doesn't make any sense. You're either strong enough or you aren't."

"I've thought about that a lot, you know."

Sasuke gave him a _look_.

"Believe what you want. Anyway, yeah, that's usually true, but…" He seemed to struggle to find the words. "It's like, alright, so you do a bunch of training and you get stronger and you end up fighting this guy that is way stronger than you are, and you're totally getting beaten up; you can't do anything to stop this guy - it's hopeless. Just as you're about to give up you figure, hey, I did my best but I guess I just wasn't good enough."

Naruto gestured towards where Sakura had been sitting.

"But then, this guy, instead of finishing you off he grabs one of your friends - someone you love - and he says 'If you don't beat me this person will die.' Well, what do you do? You _know_ that he's stronger than you, but you also know that if you fail _that person that you love will die_. It's not just about you anymore; you can't fail." He pointed back at himself. "That's what I was thinking back then. I couldn't fail… _so I didn't_. Get it?"

Sasuke gave a twitchy nod.

A quiet knock came from the door and then a nurse poked her head into the room. "You two should get some sleep, it's getting late and, well, this _is_ a hospital and if you want to get out any time soon you will need your rest." Seeing that they both understood and began rearranging themselves to follow her suggestion, she pulled herself back into the hallway and closed the door gently.

* * *

"I'm coming with you."

Jiraiya looked down his nose at where Sasuke and Sakura where standing. "Are you, now?"

"Yes."

"Tell me, why would you want to do that?"

Sasuke shifted a bit, as though his gaze made him uncomfortable. "Naruto said the two of you were going to get someone who can heal Lee and Kakashi. Kakashi is my sensei and Lee is… a friend. So, I'm coming with you."

He continued to look at Sasuke before a hint of a smile could be seen. "That's mostly right, but good enough."

_Hard to tell him no. Damn kids._

He turned to Sakura. "And you as well?"

She blushed slightly. "Ah, no. Someone needs to stay here to keep an eye on Kakashi-sensei. He's so careless…"

Jiraiya shrugged. "Suit yourself. Say, have you seen-"

"Sasuke! Sakura-chan! Ero-sennin!"

"Oi, brat, I told you not to call me that!"

Naruto shrugged as he adjusted the strap of his pack. "Don't be so perverted then. Hey, what are you two doing here?" He threw his arms behind his head and grinned. "Did ya come to give me a goodbye kiss, Sakura-chan?"

She bopped him on the head. "Don't be an idiot, I just came with Sasuke-kun to meet you here and to see you both off."

"Eh, both of us?"

Sasuke turned around and jerked a thumb towards his pack. "I'm going with you."

"Ehhhh, I don't get it but OK. Let's go!"

Sasuke cleared his throat and glanced around. "Don't we have to, you know, _tell_ someone that we're leaving?"

Jiraiya snorted. "No, I pretty much do what I want. I'll send a toad back once we're on the road. Probably. If I remember. Well, let's get started; it would be a shame to miss her because we took too long!"

* * *

Near the wreckage of what had once been a beautiful castle four people stood, facing each other in groups of two.

"It's been quite a while, Orochimaru."

He smirked, "I have a little favor to ask of you."

* * *

**A/N**: Hi.

Editing this in... a few people have accused me of plagiarism. Rude, that. I had originally posted this a bit over a year ago (same account, but different name), but had taken it down due to not being satisfied with my writing (still the case, but beside the point) and it sat more or less untouched on my external drive until now. Touched it up, unfucked some of the wording, and planned out where it's gonna go, etc.

Self-plagiarism is bad, or something.


	2. Finding Tsunade

They had traveled far enough along the West Road for Konoha to fall out of sight when Jiraiya called a halt.

"Hey, Ero-sennin, why are we stopping? Is she here?" He eyed a nearby clump of bushes suspiciously.

"Idiot, if she was this close why would he have waited for you when he could easily get here and back in under a day."

_Though, why someone like _him _would need Naruto for _anything…

As Naruto and Sasuke continued to bicker, Jiraiya walked off a bit before summoning a small, red toad wearing green goggles looped about its neck.

"Kousuke, any luck?"

The toad saluted before sketching out a rough map in the dirt of the road; the sight of Naruto sailing clear over his head failed to faze him. As Naruto ran back from where he was hurled from, he spoke up, "Peach and I went around Fire Country using the well system and we overheard some folk talking about someone matching her description in this general area." He gestured at the corner of a map, and the route Tsunade had taken to get there.

"Huh, that's not that far away. Thanks for the hard work, I'll have one of the young ones bring you some curried cuttlefish." He made to dismiss the summoning but stopped as Kousuke help up an arm.

"You should know, Shima-sama wants you to visit for dinner sometime soon; it's been a while, after all. Anyway, I'm off."

As Kousuke vanished in a poof of smoke and Jiraiya fought back the urge to gag, he turned back to where he'd left his two traveling companions only to be greeted by the sight of Sasuke pinning Naruto to the ground by pressing one knee to the back of his neck and bending an arm in a rather awkward manner.

With a sigh, Jiraiya reached over and pulled Sasuke off of Naruto by the collar of his shirt.

"Enough of that."

Sasuke detached himself with an elaborate shrug as Naruto leapt up and started dusting himself off, grumbling under his breath about how he 'almost got him.'

"So, Jiraiya, who is this person we're searching for?"

"Senju Tsunade, my former teammate." A hand went to his chin, and he adopted a thoughtful expression. "Well, I shouldn't say _former… _even though we haven't really worked together for quite some time." He made a dismissive gesture. "You know what I mean."

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at the revelation.

"Yeah, that's what my reaction is when I see her as well." He clapped a hand on Sasuke's shoulder with enough force to make him stumble slightly. "I like you, kid. Hey, Naruto! We're moving out."

* * *

Several hours of light jogging - for shinobi, that is; an untrained person would have been reduced to a sobbing, panting, sweat-soaked wreck in under a minute of attempting to match their pace - later found the three of them making their way through a festival in the middle of a decently-sized town known for its large entertainment district and willingness to pander to tourists.

"Ok, ok, training time!" Naruto let out a loud cheer, drawing bemused looks from passers-by.

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow, interested despite himself. "What's this about training?"

"Alright brats, listen up." Seeing that he had both of their attentions focused on him, Jiraiya took a deep breath and continued, "Now, originally the plan was to come here and take a bit of a break before delving into the information-gathering portion of this trip. However, _things_" he accented this with dramatic hand-waving, "happened and we lost a couple of days, so, as a result, we're just going to skip the relaxation portion of this trip. Since the two of you would likely just get in the way - Naruto, don't give me that look - I'm going to set you up with some things to do in the meantime… but we're going to need some supplies."

One large bag that was struggling at its seams and a pleasantly surprised balloon merchant later, the three of them found themselves in a sparsely wooded clearing on the outskirts of the town.

By this point, Naruto was near vibrating with excitement.

"Hey, Ero-sennin, what're you gonna teach me?!" After a quick sideways glance to Sasuke, he amended, "Us!"

Jiraiya made a show of being deep in thought before snapping his fingers.

"We're going to have a little… _competition_. I'll assign each of you something to learn and whoever picks it up first," here he paused and, with a flourish, produced a bulging wallet in the likeness of a frog, "wins money!"

"Gama-chan!"

"You really named your wallet? Aren't you supposed to be a shinobi?"

"Shut up, Sasuke! Ero-sennin, give him back!"

"Nope! Well, not until you master your jutsu… and that's _if_ you're first. Who knows, maybe Sasuke here will end up the victor."

Sasuke was fighting back a grin as he watched Naruto teeter on the verge of incoherent rage. Who knew that someone could be even more annoying than Kakashi? His mind was occupied with thoughts of the strange antics of white-haired men as Jiraiya led Naruto out of earshot and, with much furtive looking over his shoulder - what was _with_ this guy -, some sort of conversation involving dramatic hand gestures and a blank expression on Naruto's face was taking place. After some time passed like this, a frustrated Jiraiya, judging by his body language, had Naruto summon a clone, and Sasuke, acting purely on reflex, activated his Sharingan in time to see a glowing blue sphere of chakra get slammed into the clone's stomach and send it flying off into the distance before slamming into a tree hard enough to splinter bark and dispel the clone. Naruto was then left with the bag of balloons and a determined look on his face as Jiraiya headed his way.

As he drew nearer and was able to see his Sharingan, a flicker of something flashed across his face, but it was gone before he could recognize it.

"Hey, kid, were you able to copy it?"

A blank stare was his only response.

"The Rasengan." He mimed Naruto's clone flying off into the trees.

"Yes, no… maybe? I mean, I was able to see what was done but not _how_ it was done."

Jiraiya nodded as if this made perfect sense.

"This kinda ties in with what I wanted you to learn. Come on, let's go over here. No need to distract Naruto… he does that enough on his own.

"Now, your jutsu will be the Chidori."

Sasuke waited a moment for the punchline. When none came, he treated Jiraiya to an incredulous look.

"Was this just some trick to take Naruto's money? I can already use the Chidori."

"Oh, you can? Show me."

So he did.

Jiraiya made a show of examining it from every angle, even going so far as to pour a few drops of water from his flask and watch as they evaporated on contact.

"Hmm, impressive." He pulled out the wallet and was in the process of handing it over when he stopped, as if suddenly struck by inspiration. "Do it again, but this time without your fancy eyes."

Sasuke felt a burst of irritation. "But the whole point is to use it _with_ the Sharingan."

"Humor me."

With a huff, he deactivated his Sharingan, flashed through the hand signs, and concentrated the chakra to his hand… and there was only a faint fizzling sound. He tried it again, this time much slower and with greater care, and the result was the same. As he looked up at Jiraiya, who was currently looking quite smug, he tried to hide his frustration. It must have shown on his face, however, because Jiraiya chose this moment to speak up.

"How was it you learned this in the first place."

"Kakashi explained it to me and had me-"

"'Copy it with my Sharingan,' right?"

He nodded.

"What a sloppy way of doing things, though I suppose if you were pressed for time it can be excused… and since, as you say, 'the whole point is using it with your Sharingan,' you never noticed.

"Are you going to explain?"

"Tell me, have you ever wondered why it is that your sensei, the man known across the Elemental Nations as 'Copy Ninja Kakashi, the man who has copied over a thousand techniques,' only ever uses a select few of these in combat?"

He folded his arms and shifted his weight to one foot. "Because he's lazy?"

"Cute, but no. Sure, you can copy all sorts of things with those eyes of yours, but just because you can mimic it doesn't mean you understand it on a basic level. Yeah, that dojutsu will fill in that gap, but there's always a cost. Maybe it's increased chakra consumption, or it takes you longer to execute, perhaps a lack of power, and so on. The _point_ is that if you want to use that Chidori of yours properly you need to be able to use it _without_ the help of your eyes. You'll be better off for it, and, possibly," he jingled Naruto's wallet, "richer as well."

_So that's why he had me drill endlessly on Lee's taijutsu._

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"'Aren't you supposed to be a shinobi?' Figure it out. But because I'm such a nice guy, I'll give you a hint: shape before element. Have fun!"

With that, Jiraiya left Sasuke standing there, looking at his hand inquisitively. He shook his head and made his way back down to the town, but not before summoning two toads to keep a discrete watch on the boys with instructions to summon him in case of a repeat performance by Akatsuki.

You didn't make it to his age in this world without being careful.

* * *

They found Tsunade a couple of days later, but the meeting hadn't gone particularly well.

Naruto had taken offense to her shaming of the Hokage position and those who take it up, and the end result was a destroyed stretch of road, a confiscated forehead protector, a prideful boast, and a ridiculous bet: 'Three days, you say? I'll be generous; if you can master that technique in five, then not only will I acknowledge that you could become Hokage, I will give you this necklace of mine. But if you can't' she held up the forehead protector that Iruka had given him 'then I keep this, because a shinobi has no business making promises he can't keep.'

Tsunade's assistant had arranged for a place to stay, seen to Naruto's wounds, and now here they were, the next day, back in that clearing, each working on their respective techniques.

He was making progress, as evidenced by the flowing chakra around his hand, but without it being converted into lightning the worst it would do was give someone a nasty bruise.

Naruto also seemed to be having difficulties, if the muttered cursing and swath of partially destroyed trees were anything to go by.

Sasuke rolled his shoulders, popped the kinks in his neck and back, and set about bringing lightning chakra out to coat his hand once more, only this time he managed to make it flow somewhat. He concentrated more, and was able to get the flowing motion the deepen until ripples were clearly visible, and he dismissed the chakra once more; he'd need a different approach. Lightning wasn't water, after all. Maybe if he gradually converted small bits of the chakra at a time?

He glanced over to where Naruto was straining to make the Rasengan stable and suppressed the urge to snort. There was no way he would manage it in time without…

It hit him, then, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, took several deep breaths, and counted slowly to 30 in order to prevent himself from stalking off to find Jiraiya and tearing bloody strips off of the insufferable man.

_Damn Jounin mind games. I refuse to give that man the satisfaction of a lecture._

"Hey, Naruto!"

* * *

Yakushi Kabuto surveyed the scene in front of him with no small amount of amusement.

He had already managed to defeat Tsunade - _the one and only legendary-member-of-the-Sannin Tsunade_ - and was feeling, he felt, deservedly smug, no matter that he had abused a fear of blood to pull it off. He was a shinobi, after all. Her assistant had fallen just as easily, his scrambled nervous system notwithstanding, so enraged was she at the handling of her mentor that a simple underground ambush followed by a chakra-enhanced blow to the head had been sufficient to remove her from the fight.

He would have then rained further abuse on Tsunade for having the gall to try and betray Orochimaru, but his initial punch was blocked by the sudden appearance of one Uchiha Sasuke, scowl firmly in place, who caught it on his forearm and only slid backwards a small amount. On hearing a war cry from directly above, he consciously sent the commands that would have, under normal circumstances, tensed the muscles on his upper back, flared his nostrils, and caused his right eye to blink, among others, and leapt backward to avoid an axe-kick from Naruto.

And so here he was, separated from his quarry by two Genin who were glaring and scowling at him, respectively.

Kabuto took the ensuing conversation in which he alternately criticized Naruto on his poor form and complimented Sasuke on his improved speed to begin the repair of his scrambled nerves -and that was a technique he simply _had _to learn; so many possibilities - and to glance over and check on the fight between Orochimaru and Jiraiya to see if he would be needed but it seemed that, crippled and all, Orochimaru was more than a match for a poisoned Jiraiya.

Well, it looked like the two children in front of him were actually going to attack. How interesting.

He watched as Naruto and Sasuke shared a glance, before the latter threw a smoke bomb downward, briefly obscuring them, and several shuriken came shooting out of the cloud directly at his chest. They were sidestepped easily enough, and he heard them embed into the large rock behind him with a series of thunks.

By now the smoke had dissipated, and several Narutos were charging directly at him, while Sasuke wisely stayed out of the fight and remained to guard the fallen Kunoichi behind him.

_Letting your idiot of a teammate run to his death, Sasuke-kun? If nothing else, I approve of your pragmatism; no sense in getting yourself killed fighting me!_

The Narutos were upon him then, and Kabuto decided to use primarily taijutsu to dispatch the clones, to both give him time to further reverse his scrambled nerves, and to keep an eye both on Sasuke, who could be planning something, and the fight between Orochimaru and Jiraiya, which seemed to have reached a stalemate.

Duck under a flying clone, grab it by its foot and swing it into the path of another, dispelling both, insult Naruto's poor hand-to-hand skills and lack of self-coordination, stab a third clone in the eye, and kick a fourth in the head to send it flying.

_Huh, that was the original… and he's getting right back up again. Stubborn brat. Kid needs to learn to quit when he's outmatched._

Kabuto allowed himself a brief chuckle as yet more clones were made even has he dispelled the remaining few around him. He spared a glance at Sasuke -still just watching, standing there with his hands clasped behind his head as if without a care in the world.

Had he been drugged as well?

His attention swung back to Naruto, who had moved his clones into flanking positions and had them charge while he formed a sphere of of rapidly spinning chakra in one hand. Kabuto's eyes narrowed at the sight even as he skipped backwards to cause the flanking clones to change direction and come at him more-or-less head on.

_That could be dangerous, have to-_

His eyes widened as, once he landed, four sets of hands burst from the earth to grab on to his feet and he connected the initial smokescreen with their proximity to the tunnel he had used to attack Shizune even has he used thrown kunai to disperse two of the clones.

As Kabuto grabbed additional kunai to rid himself of the last two, he noticed out of the corner of his eye the clones that he thought had been meant for flanking grab a hold of Naruto and, with a mighty heave, send him flying his way.

_Shit!_

Ten paces away.

He wouldn't be able to rid himself of the remaining clones in time, and he didn't have a substitution prepared.

One arm's length away.

In a last ditch effort to safeguard himself, he focused all of his chakra to his chest in the hopes of lessing the damage, cursing internally all the while.

Contact.

The skin of his belly was trying desperately to rip itself apart, and he could swear that his very bones were vibrating due to the shaking he felt in all parts of his body, but his improvised chakra barrier seemed to have held off the worst of the damage. As he was sent flying backward, his plans for tormenting Naruto in increasingly violent ways were interrupted by the faint _pop_ of a henge dispersing behind him, followed by the sound of many birds chirping, first faint, then louder.

_The shuriken… a trap, the whole time!_

He hurriedly cast his chakra out, looking for something, anything, to substitute with, but he was moving far too quickly and he was still reeling from Naruto's assault and there was no time and

Pain.

Threatening to swallow him whole. How had… oh yes, that's right.

He looked dumbly down at the lightning-wreathed hand protruding from the left side of his chest, as he was reasonably sure that that did _not_ belong there. There was a faint pressure on his back, and he could feel the hand being pulled out - shoving shattered ribs aside, retreating through the tattered remnants of his heart and a lung, brushing against his spine - and he was left with a gaping hole that was leaking a truly alarming amount of blood.

Well, that just wouldn't do.

Kabuto was a medic, and every medic knew that you needed your blood, so he slowly, carefully, cupped his hands under the wound, captured some blood, and gently placed it back within himself.

Much better.

A small part of his mind cataloged for future use the fact that this new shower of blood seemed to have sent Tsunade further into the depths of her psychosis.

He started to make another go of returning blood to himself but lost his balance somewhere along the way and fell flat on his face.

That wasn't meant to happen.

He needed to use his arms to leverage himself back up so that he could finish putting all of his blood back. He needed to remember _how_ to control his arms, because at the moment all he was doing was clenching his jaw and wriggling his toes. He needed

* * *

It didn't take long for Sakura to track him down, but then again, when it came to anything regarding him, she could be considered an expert.

"Sasuke-kun, nobody will tell me what happened."

In hindsight, the upper branches of a tree within view of his apartment was perhaps not the sneakiest of places to be if you wanted to avoid being found. For wallowing in self-pity, however, there was nowhere better. Not that he would do such a thing.

"Are you even listening to me?"

True, Naruto's plan had worked out, which was no longer as surprising as it would once have been, but to kill a man like that… it was supposed to be difficult. Was this ease in taking life how _that man_ had been able to so nonchalantly murder his entire clan? He looked up from where he had been contemplating the patterns of the bark on the branch he was sitting on, and absolutely did not shrink back a bit in surprise as his eyes beheld the utterly enraged face - as pink as her hair, and any other time he might have laughed - of his teammate.

"_Uchiha Sasuke_, you _will _stop ignoring me and you _will_ tell me what happened or so help me…" she trailed off into a string of increasingly violent and physiologically improbable threats, accompanied by vicious hand movements, and for the first time he began to understand why Shikamaru was so terrified of women.

A placating hand gesture and some calming words later, Sakura was straddling the branch an arm's length away, and fixing him with an intent look.

"Explain."

"Why not ask Naruto?"

"I was going to, but he was helping Ino out in the greenhouses, and I didn't really feel like dealing with her at the moment." _And I wanted an excuse to talk to you._ "Did you know he liked gardening?"

He didn't, but he nodded anyway, seizing on this opportunity.

"Well, he does, apparently. Who would have thought someone like him would have the patience for…" she trailed off, and her face began to color again. "Are you trying to distract me?"

There was nothing at all he could say here that would help him, so he remained silent.

With a face like thunder, and a posture that clearly broadcast that she would be putting up with any shenanigans on his part to get out of this, she repeated her earlier demand.

He could have escaped, of course… but Jiraiya _had_ said, afterward, that it would help to talk about it, and the man, annoying though he was, had been right about other things.

So he did.

There were only a few interruptions:

"_So Kabuto was a traitor? That bastard!"_

_and_

"_That idiotic plan actually worked?"_

"_I was surprised too, you know."_

_and_

"_It had to be done, right? I mean, he was trying to kill other Konoha shinobi, and in the Academy Iruka-sensei always said that, while we shouldn't go searching to end lives, doing it during the course of a mission is perfectly understandable."_

His response died stillborn as there was the faintest scuff of sandal on roof tile behind them, done in such a way as to convey how deliberate it was, and that set all sorts of alarm bells ringing, as every Konoha shinobi and trainee - Naruto included - knew that out of deference to the sanity of their civilian populace, travel by roofs was prohibited after dark. So for someone to be there, now… A quick glance out of the corner of his eye revealed that Sakura hadn't noticed.

Good.

In what he felt was an exceedingly calm voice given the circumstances, he said, "Sakura, could you do me a favor?"

As expected, she turned to him, bright smile suddenly back in place. "Of course, Sasuke-kun!" Though the extra-sweet voice was perhaps a bit much. No matter.

"You know that stand a few streets north of the hot springs, near the bar with that awful red sign?"

She didn't, but she could find it, and said as much.

"Could you get me some anpan, along with whatever you want for yourself?"

She nodded again and headed out.

Just before she rounded the corner, five figures appeared before him.

Sasuke scanned them instantly - four were in matching uniforms (tan tunic, black shorts, large purple rope acting as belt to hold it all together, forehead protectors bearing the single musical note of Otogakure), while the fifth, standing in the center, had opted for a light purple shirt and done away with the hitai-ate, perhaps a sign of rank - as he got to his feet and adopted a defensive, but non-confrontational stance.

The one in the center (the captain?) stepped forward and in the light of a nearby street lamp Sasuke noted the two red dots on his brow as well as the trio of curved lines tattooed on his chest.

He spoke, his voice deeper than Sasuke would have expected, in a tone that suggested anything other than instant obedience would be unwise.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you are coming with us."

* * *

**A/N**: Could be better, but learn by doing, right? It jumps around a bit but I hope it all makes sense (I just didn't want to endlessly drag on for days of training). Also, the divergence is widening, very exciting(for me, anyway)!


End file.
